


Returned: One Diamond Ring

by HidingintheInkwell



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-01-22
Packaged: 2019-10-14 16:51:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17512346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HidingintheInkwell/pseuds/HidingintheInkwell
Summary: I’ve seen a lot of people coming in and out of my shop over the years. Tourists looking for some souvenir jewelry, distrustful trophy wives wanting to see if their diamonds are real, young kids wanting to buy something nice to impress their girlfriend, eyes shining with nerves as they prepare to pop the question. Every so often, I get someone particularly memorable. A young man so nervous about picking out the right ring he nearly hurled on the display case, a blonde woman so angry when she tried to fence the diamonds off a tennis bracelet her husband had given her only to find out they were fake that she cracked the glass on a case holding earrings, and the tall, dark haired man with the edges of tattoos peeking out from under his sleeves.





	Returned: One Diamond Ring

**Author's Note:**

> Steve deserves so much better than Catherine

I’ve seen a lot of people coming in and out of my shop over the years. Tourists looking for some souvenir jewelry, distrustful trophy wives wanting to see if their diamonds are real, young kids wanting to buy something nice to impress their girlfriend, eyes shining with nerves as they prepare to pop the question. Every so often, I get someone particularly memorable. A young man so nervous about picking out the right ring he nearly hurled on the display case, a blonde woman so angry when she tried to fence the diamonds off a tennis bracelet her husband had given her only to find out they were fake that she cracked the glass on a case holding earrings, and the tall, dark haired man with the edges of tattoos peeking out from under his sleeves. 

He was handsome in that rugged, devil-may-care kinda way, ex-military if I was a day past my age. Seen my fair share of them, too. Coming in to buy their sweethearts something before they ship off. This guy was nervous while pretending not to be. I could see it in the tension of his shoulders as he hovered over the display of rings, having no idea the number of people before him he was imitating. He pondered the display for a long time, not saying a word. Neither did I. Guys like this, they weren’t some green kid wanting the biggest and gaudiest to propose to their lady-love. This guy knew his girl. He wanted it to be perfect. He didn’t find it in that display case. No, he had it custom made; that’s part of why he was so rememberable. He wasn’t going to settle for something from a case. He left me with his order and the promise that I’d call when it was ready. It was an order I had to send off to a friend on  the mainland to fill. I just didn’t have what I needed here on the island. 

My friend came through for me, two weeks later it was delivered in it’s garnett red box, gorgeous and glimmering in the Hawaiian sun. Whoever the lucky lady was, she was going to love it. Her man had fine taste. I gave him a call. I was so busy that day I didn’t even notice the kid lingering by the gaudier stuff until it was nearly closing. He was young, way too young to be looking at an engagement ring. Local kid, I’ve seen him working at that shrimp truck the odd time I passed by. He told me he was picking the ring up for the soldier. The kid was practically bouncing in excitement, the guy clearly meant a lot to him. I sent him off with the ring after a quick call to verify (I wasn’t born yesterday, you know), and then I closed up for the night. 

The last thing I expected was to see Soldier Boy walking back into my store less than a week later. His eyes were lacking that shine they had last time I saw him. He looked tired, like the weight of the world had landed squarely on his back.  _ Who’d be dumb enough to say no to that?  _ I thought, but held my tongue. He didn’t even glance at the cases, instead heading straight for me, pulling that little box out of his pocket and putting it on the counter between us. “I need to return this, please.” He sounded hollow. I’d heard that one too.  _ Wasn’t the ring that was the problem, then.  _ I opened the case. Even the beautiful workmanship looked dull, like a cheap fabrication. I didn’t ask the questions in my head. I already knew the answers. You get pretty good at reading people in this business. He was returning it, not exchanging it; and he hadn’t even taken a second look at the cases. Either she said no, or she left him. Either way, he didn’t want to talk about it. I rang up the return, and he left. 

I went about my business, the usual crowds. Couple tourists looking to get hitched on the Big Island, green sailor boys looking to tie the knot before they’re sent on their next tour of the seas, high school sweethearts and the ones about to celebrate 25, 50, 60 years. They were nice to watch, but no one was quite as memorable as the Soldier Boy with the hollow green eyes. He drove by sometimes in that big blue truck, sometimes with lights flashing, sometimes just cruising along. He never came back in, never even glanced at my storefront. It was like he was trying to put it all behind him. 

It was two years before another memorable customer came in. He was familiar, but I couldn’t place why. On the shorter side, dirty blond hair slicked back and his hands were shoved into the pockets of his khakis. He wandered the display cases in a way that told me he’d done this before. The fact that he was in again, and the distinct lack of band when he pulled out his hand to rub his neck told me it had not ended well. He spent a long time looking at the rings, but not the diamond ones. He was looking at the mens. Now I’ve been called old fashioned, I still believe that marriage is a sanction between a man and a woman, but that didn’t mean I was some kinda homophobe. Probably about a third of my customers were people looking to buy something for their same sex partners, and they all had the same looks as any straight customer. Love was love, in my opinion (and regardless of preference, their money was all the same too).  

He found what he was looking for in a gunmetal steel ring inlaid with a blue band around the center. He probably didn’t realize the blue was the same shade of his eyes. “Who’s the lucky fella?” I asked. The question surprised a chuckle out of him. “He, ah… he’s actually my partner at work. The others, they, ah, they’re always joking around that we fight like an old married couple. I decided it was finally time we do something about that.” I smiled as I packed up his ring. No resizing necessary, now that’s what I call a perfect match. He paid up and thanked me before tucking the box into a pocket and leaving, climbing into a black camaro and driving away. It was only later, as I was boxing up a cameo necklace for a young woman (a gift for her mother’s birthday) that I realized why the blond man had been so familiar. I’ve seen him on the news. He worked for that crew, Five-Oh. They did good work on the island, actually helped out a friend of mine when a robbery of his shop went wrong and cost him an employee and a week in the hospital with a bummed shoulder. 

When I got home that evening, I made a light dinner and sat at my computer (I was  _ not _ as anti-technology as my daughter seemed to think I was) to look up the Five-Oh team. There he was, between the pretty girl who my daughter used to watch surf and the tall, dark haired Soldier Boy who’d been in all those years ago. “Well I’ll be damned,” I muttered, smiling at the photo. Staring at their photo, at they way they stood in one another’s orbit even there, I couldn’t help but think that the ancient gods really did work in mysterious ways. Soldier Boy was a lucky man, if he had someone like Blondie guarding his heart. Whoever that woman had been, I’d have bet my big toe she didn’t realize just what she was letting go when she bailed. But Soldier Boy was clearly in better hands now. I shut down my computer and settled into some late night Jeopardy. Something told me I’d be seeing Soldier Boy again soon, and I had the perfect silver and green band in mind when I did. 

~FIN~

  
  



End file.
